


Well, That's One Way to Come Out of the Closet

by sparkling_cider



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Banter, Bucky is so awkward it's not even funny, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, except it totally is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-28
Updated: 2018-11-28
Packaged: 2019-09-01 23:47:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16775353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparkling_cider/pseuds/sparkling_cider
Summary: “How did you two get together anyway?” Sam asks.Natasha looks up from her phone, curious.“Yeah,” she says. “How come you’ve never told us the story?”“Oh,” Bucky says. “It’s not really that interesting. We really don’t have to tell you.”Steve grins at him, and Natasha is surprised to see Bucky turn a faint pink.“It’s like this,” Steve says.





	Well, That's One Way to Come Out of the Closet

Steve stares at him.

"I mean—" Bucky tries again. "I wouldn't actually. Because I'm not. But if I was."

Steve keeps staring. Bucky feels himself starting to blush, which doesn't happen often. It's only the sheer stupidity of the situation—he'd been trying to make Steve feel better is all.

Steve is nineteen and skinny and asthmatic and he's just been rejected by some girl whose name Bucky doesn't even remember. Bucky, as Steve's best friend, has the semi-official duty of reassuring Steve that She Doesn't Deserve Him and She Has a Mean Older Brother and She's Ugly Anyway.

But none of it had seemed to be working, and Bucky, in a state of desperation, had slipped out with "If I was queer, I'd date you in a heartbeat." And now he's lying in the grave he dug himself.

Steve is staring at him with those stupidly pretty eyes without blinking, the way he does sometimes when he's at the Met and he's found a painting that he'll no doubt be talking about for the next week. Bucky thinks he is going to die, possibly very soon. He wishes he could rewind the last five minutes of his life. He needs to fix this.

Bucky says, "You're a good guy is what I mean."

Which is fine, but then he feels the need to add, "And not in that way that dames say when they think a you're not good enough for them, you're handsomer than you think. Your face is a good face I mean." His neck is probably bright red by now. Why can't he stop fucking talking. "And the—other parts of you." He gestures, vaguely, to Steve's body. "They're also good."

Steve's eyes get, if possible, even wider.

"Asthma or no asthma, I'd, you know—"

Steve _looks_ at him.

Bucky sits back heavily on the couch.

"I am _so_ sorry," he says, and Steve breaks into a fit of coughing.

It's loud and violent the way his asthma attacks always are, and Bucky's halfway to the medicine cabinet before he realizes that it probably isn't coughing after all. It takes him a moment to realize that Steve's laughing so hard he can't breathe, bent double with his knees pulled up to his body in an apparent attempt to get ahold of himself.

"Oh—my god," Steve chokes out between wheezes. "Holy—shit, Buck."

He looks up at Bucky, who's trying to figure out what's going on. The sight is too much for him, though, because he breaks into a fresh fit of laughter as he slides slowly off the couch and onto the floor.

Bucky waits it out, ignoring the smile tugging at the corner of his mouth the way it always does when Steve so much as grins at him. He doesn't get what's so funny; at the very least, it probably means that Steve's not going to tell him that he's disgusting and that he never wants to see him again. There's even a tiny seed of hope inside him saying that—well, it doesn't matter what it's saying, does it.

Finally, Steve calms down. He rocks back on his heels and grins helplessly at Bucky.

"I can't believe that's how you took off the mask."

Bucky shrugs, fights the desire to cross his arms over his torso.

"Didn't say I was queer."

Steve raises an eyebrow.

"I'm not saying I am either," he says.

And now it's Bucky not doing so great on that breathing front.

"But?" he asks.

"But if I was, I'd date you in a heartbeat too."

He's smirking at him, the little shit. There's a waterfall or something in Bucky's ears.

"You're a smartass, Rogers."

Steve grins. "You wanna come over and shut me up?"

And boy, does he ever.


End file.
